198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



has manifested itself in the fact that the raw materials of food — cattle, 

 etc. — retained their Saxon names, such as calf, ox, sheep, etc., "while 

 the prepared meat is called by the French terms, beef, veal, mutton. 

 Words used by the aristocracy will retain a high and polite significa- 

 tion, while the corresponding words in Saxon used by the vulgar will 

 be spurned by the higher classes, and will receive a vulgar stamp. 



Another striking instance of the vulgarizing influence of the Nor- 

 man Conquest upon the Saxon vernacular is afforded by the word 

 " buxom." In Anglo-Saxon heogan, bugan, and bocsuni, it still obtains 

 in the German, biegen, biegsam. In German it has retained its original 

 meaning of bendable, pliable, slender, etc. In a mental sense it meant 

 obedient (pliable), as " Under obedience to be and buxum to the lawe " 

 (" Piers Plowman," about A. D. 13G2). In Chaucer (" Clerkes Tale ") we 

 have it in its original physical meaning : " And the}'" with humble 

 entent buxumly — knelynge upon hir knees ful reverently." But in 

 English we find a strange alteration in its meaning as applied to the 

 human female figure. I may venture upon the following hypothesis 

 with regard to the history of this word : Originally, I believe, this 

 word was applied to the female figure to denote grace, litheness, slim- 

 ness. If I remember rightly, some modern poet uses the word in that 

 sense; the " buxom willow," or in some similar context. It would then 

 convey the attribute of pliability and grace which is given in the words 

 of Musset addressed to a lady : " Dans nos valses joyeuses je vous 

 sentait dans mes bras piier comme un roseau." So, I venture to say, 

 the word buxom was frequently applied to graceful, slender girls as a 

 mark of high admiration. After the Norman Conquest, I suppose this 

 to have been the action on the part of those who struck the key-note 

 of bon-ton. Consciously, or half-consciously, the following train of 

 thought seems to have pressed itself upon those of a markedly aristo- 

 cratic turn of mind : " The people is essentially a distinct body from us, 

 the aristocracy, especially the woman whom we admire so much. The 

 words of the people must denote the attributes of the people : the lady 

 is graceful, etc. ; the woman is healthy, stout, red-cheeked, etc. — the 

 lady dances, and we can feel her ' se plier comme lui roseau,' but not 

 the peasant-woman." Now, they found the word buxom indicating 

 beauty in the woman of the people, they therefore influenced language, 

 so that " buxom " conveyed the meaning of the beauty peculiar to the 

 woman of the people. 



Such a process is not restricted to the historical development of 

 England ; but we meet with it repeatedly in history, whenever there is 

 this bloodless intellectual and Hnguistic warfare between classes. In 

 Germany, e. g., the purely German words were repressed in meaning in 

 proportion as the French gained footing as the language of the courts 

 and of polite society through Frederick the Great and the subsequent 

 Napoleonic influence. The Frau and Frauenzimmer assumed a lower 

 connotation the more the word " madame " was used in connection with 



